Zephaniah 1:3

Preface To The Prophet Zephaniah (1532) Zephaniah lived in the time of the prophet Jeremiah, for as the title shows, he prophesied under King Josiah, as did Jeremiah. For that reason he prophesies the very same things as Jeremiah, namely, that Jerusalem and Judah shall be destroyed and the people carried away because of the wicked life, of which they do not repent. He does not, however, like Jeremiah, name the king of Babylon as the one who is to inflict this destruction and captivity, but only says that God will bring misfortune and affliction upon them so that He may move them to repentance. For none of the prophets could ever persuade this people that God was angry with them. They relied continually on the claim that they were, and were called, God’s people, and whoever preached that God was angry with them must be a false prophet, and must die, for they would not believe that God would leave His people. It was just as it is today, when all who teach that the Christians err and commit sin and that God will punish them, are denounced and killed as heretics. But he prophesies this disaster not to Judah only, but also to all the surrounding and neighboring lands, such as the Philistines, Moab, the Ethiopians and the Assyrians. The King of Babylon is to be God’s rod upon all lands. In the third chapter, he prophesies gloriously and clearly of the happy and blessed kingdom of Christ, which shall be spread over all the world. Although he is a small prophet, he speaks more about Christ than many other great prophets, more than even Jeremiah. By this prophecy he gives the people rich comfort, so that they may not despair of God because of the Babylonian Captivity and their disaster, as though God had cast them off forever, but might be sure that, after their punishment, they would receive grace again and get the promised Savior, Christ, with His glorious kingdom.

Introduction This chapter begins with denouncing God's judgments against Judah and Jerusalem, Zep 1:1-3 . Idolaters, and sinners of several other denominations, are then particularly threatened; and their approaching visitation enlarged on, by the enumeration of several circumstances which tend greatly to heighten its terrors, Zep 1:4-18 . Verse 1 The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah - Though this prophet has given us so large a list of his ancestors, yet little concerning him is known, because we know nothing certain relative to the persons of the family whose names are here introduced. We have one chronological note which is of more value for the correct understanding of his prophecy than the other could have been, how circumstantially soever it had been delivered; viz., that he prophesied in the days of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah; and from the description which he gives of the disorders which prevailed in Judea in his time, it is evident that he must have prophesied before the reformation made by Josiah, which was in the eighteenth year of his reign. And as he predicts the destruction of Nineveh, Zep 2:13 , which, as Calmet remarks, could not have taken place before the sixteenth of Josiah, allowing with Berosus twenty-one years for the reign of Nabopolassar over the Chaldeans; we must, therefore, place this prophecy about the beginning of the reign of Josiah, or from b.c. 640 to b.c. 609. But see the chronological notes. Verse 2 I will utterly consume all things - All being now ripe for destruction, I will shortly bring a universal scourge upon the land. He speaks particularly of the idolaters. Verse 3 I will consume man and beast - By war, and by pestilence. Even the waters shall he infected, and the fish destroyed; the air become contaminated, and the fowls die. Verse 4 I will cut off the remnant of Baal - I think he refers here, partly at least, to the reformation which Josiah was to bring about. See the account, 2Kgs 23:5 (note). The Chemarims - The black-robed priests of different idols. See the note on 2Kgs 23:6 . These were put down by Josiah. Verse 5 The host of heaven - Sun, moon, planets, and stars. This worship was one of the most ancient and the most common of all species of idolatry; and it had a greater semblance of reason to recommend it. See 2Kgs 23:6 , 2Kgs 23:12 ; Jer 19:13 ; Jer 32:29 . That swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham - Associating the name of an idol with that of the Most High. For Malcham, see on Hos 4:15 (note), and Amo 5:26 (note). Verse 6 Them that are turned back - Who have forsaken the true God, and become idolaters. Nor inquired for him - Have not desired to know his will. Verse 7 Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lords God - הס has, the same as hush, hist, among us. Remonstrances are now useless. You had time to acquaint yourselves with God; you would not: you cry now in vain; destruction is at the door. The Lord hath prepared a sacrifice - A slaughter of the people. He hath bid his guests - The Babylonians, to whom he has given a commission to destroy you. In all festivals sacrifices, 1. The victims were offered to God, and their blood poured out before the altar. 2. The people who were invited feasted upon the sacrifice. See on Isa 34:6 (note). Verse 8 I will punish the princes, and the king's children - After the death of Josiah the kingdom of Judah saw no prosperity, and every reign terminated miserably; until at last King Zedekiah and the king's children were cruelly massacred at Riblah, when Nebuchadnezzar had taken Jerusalem. Strange apparel - I really think this refers more to their embracing idolatrous customs and heathen usages, than to their changing their dress. They acquired new habits, as we would say; customs, that they used as they did their clothing - at all times, and in every thing. Verse 9 That leap on the threshold - Or, that leap over the threshold. It is most probable that the Philistines are here meant. After the time that Dagon fell before the ark, and his hands were broken off on the threshold of his temple, his worshippers would no more set a foot upon the threshold, but stepped or leaped over it, when they entered into his temple. The Chaldee understands this of the Philistines, without giving this reason for it. Some understand it of haughtiness and pride: others think that leaping on the threshold refers to the customs of the Arabs, who used to ride into people's houses and take away whatever they could carry; and that this is the reason why, in several parts of the East, they have their doors made very low, to prevent those depredators from entering. In this manner, we learn the Persians have frequently oppressed the poor Armenians, going on horseback into their houses, and taking whatever they thought proper. Mr. Harmer understands it in this way. Verse 10 A cry from the fish-gate - This gate, which is mentioned Neh 3:3 , was opposite to Joppa; and perhaps the way in which the news came of the irruption of the Chaldean army, the great crashing from the hills. The second - Or second city, may here mean a part of Jerusalem, mentioned 2Kgs 22:14 ; 2Chr 34:22 . Verse 11 Maktesh - Calmet says this signifies a mortar, or a rock in form of a mortar, and was the name of a quarter of Jerusalem where they hulled rice, corn, etc., according to St. Jerome. Some think the city of Jerusalem is meant, where the inhabitants should be beat and pounded to death as grain is pounded in a mortar. Newcome translates it, the lower city, and considers it the valley in Jerusalem, which divided the upper from the lower city. They that bear silver - The merchants, moneychangers, usurers, rich men. Verse 12 I will search Jerusalem with candles - I will make a universal and thorough search. That are settled on their lees - Those who are careless, satisfied with the goods of this life; who trust in their riches, and are completely irreligious; who, while they acknowledge that there is a God, think, like the Aristotelians, that he is so supremely happy in the contemplation of his own excellences, that he feels it beneath his dignity to concern himself with the affairs of mortals. Verse 13 Their goods (in which they trust) shall become a booty - To the Chaldeans. They shall have no profit of all their labors. The houses they have built they shall not inhabit; of the wine of the vineyards they have planted, they shall not drink. See Amo 5:11 , where we find the same evils threatened. Verse 14 The great day of the Lord is near - It commenced with the death of the good king Josiah, who was slain by Pharaoh-necho at Megiddo, and continued to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. Verse 15 That day is a day of wrath - See Isa 22:5 (note); Jer 30:7 (note); Joe 2:2 (note), Joe 2:11 (note); Amo 5:18 (note); Zep 1:18 (note), and the notes there. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth verse inclusive there is a most beautiful amplification of the disasters that were coming on Jerusalem; the invasion, incursion, attack, carnage, confusion, horrible din occasioned by the sound of the trumpet, the cries of the people, and the shrieks and groans of the dying, are pointed out with great force and mighty effect. Verse 17 They shall walk like blind men - Be in the most perplexing doubt and uncertainty; and while in this state, have their blood poured out by the sword of their enemies, and their flesh trodden under foot. Verse 18 Their silver nor their gold - In which they trusted, and from which they expected happiness; these shall not profit them in this awful day. And God will bring this about speedily; and a speedy riddance - a universal desolation, shall in a short time take place in every part of the land.

Zephaniah This prophet is placed last, as he was last in time, of all the minor prophets before the captivity, and not long before Jeremiah, who lived at the time of the captivity. He foretels the general destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and sets their sins in order before them, which had provoked God to bring their ruin upon them, calls them to repentance, threatens the neighbouring nations with the like destructions, and gives encouraging promises of their joyful return out of captivity in due time, which have a reference to the grace of the gospel. We have, in the first verse , an account of the prophet and the date of his prophecy, which supersedes our enquiry concerning them here. After the title of the book ( ver. 1 ) here is, I. A threatening of the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, an utter destruction, by the Chaldeans, ver. 2-4 . II. A charge against them for their gross sin, which provoked God to bring that destruction upon them ( ver. 5, 6 ); and so he goes on in the rest of the chapter, setting both the judgments before them, that they might prevent them or prepare for them, and the sins that destroy them, that they might judge themselves, and justify God in what was brought upon them. 1. They must hold their peace because they had greatly sinned, ver. 7-9 . But, 2, They shall howl because the trouble will be great. The day of the Lord is near, and it will be a terrible day, ver. 10-18 . Such fair and timely warning as this did God give to the Jews of the approaching captivity; but they hardened their neck, which made their destruction remediless. Judgment Predicted. ( b. c. 612.) 1 The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. 2 I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord . 3 I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling-blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord . 4 I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests; 5 And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the Lord , and that swear by Malcham; 6 And them that are turned back from the Lord ; and those that have not sought the Lord , nor enquired for him. Here is, I. The title-page of this book ( v. 1 ), in which we observe, 1. What authority it has, and who gave it that authority; it is from heaven, and not of men: It is the word of the Lord. 2. Who was the instrument of conveying it to the church. His name was Zephaniah, which signifies the servant of the Lord, for God revealed his secrets to his servants the prophets. The pedigree of other prophets, whose extraction we have an account of, goes no further back than their father, except Zecharias, whose grandfather also is named. But this of Zephaniah goes back four generations, and the highest mentioned is Hizkiah; it is the very same name in the original with that of Hezekiah king of Judah ( 2 Kings xviii. 1 ), and refers probably to him; if so, our prophet, being lineally descended from that pious prince, and being of the royal family, could with the better grace reprove the folly of the king's children as he does, v. 8 . 3. When this prophet prophesied— in the days of Josiah king of Judah, who reigned well, and in the twelfth year of his reign began vigorously, and carried on a work of reformation, in which he destroyed idols and idolatry. Now it does not appear whether Zephaniah prophesied in the beginning of his reign; if so, we may suppose his prophesying had a great and good influence on that reformation. When he, as God's messenger, reproved the idolatries of Jerusalem, Josiah, as God's vice-gerent, removed them; and reformation is likely to go on and prosper when both magistrates and ministers do their part towards it. If it were towards the latter end of his reign that he prophesied, we sadly see how a corrupt people relapse into their former distempers. The idolatries Josiah had abolished, it should seem, returned in his own time, when the heat of the reformation began a little to abate and wear off. What good can the best reformers do with a people that hate to be reformed, as if they longed to be ruined? II. The summary, or contents, of this book. The general proposition contained in it is, That utter destruction is coming apace upon Judah and Jerusalem for sin. Without preamble, or apology, he begins abruptly ( v. 2 ): By taking away I will make an end of all things from off the face of the land, Saith the Lord. Ruin is coming, utter ruin, destruction from the Almighty. He has said it who can, and will, make good what he has said: " I will utterly consume all things. I will gather all things" (so some); "I will recall all the blessings I have bestowed, because they have abused them and so forfeited them." The consumption determined shall take away, 1. The inferior creatures: I will consume the beasts, the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea ( v. 3 ), as, in the deluge, every living substance was destroyed that was upon the face of the ground, Gen. vii. 23 . The creatures were made for man's use, and therefore when he has perverted the use of them, and made them subject to vanity, God, to show the greatness of his displeasure against the sin of man, involves them in his punishment. The expressions are figurative, denoting universal desolation. Those that fly ever so high, as the fowls of heaven, and think themselves out of the reach of the enemies' hand—those that hide ever so close, as the fishes of the sea, and think themselves out of the reach of the enemies' eye—shall yet become a prey to them, and be utterly consumed. 2. The children of men: " I will consume man; I will cut off man from the land. The land shall be dispeopled and left uninhabited; I will destroy, not only Israel, but man. The land shall enjoy her sabbaths. I will cut off, not only the wicked men, but all men; even the few among them that are good shall be involved in this common calamity. Though they shall not be cut off from the Lord, yet they shall be cut off from the land. " It is with Judah and Jerusalem that God has this quarrel, both city and country, and upon them he will stretch out his hand, the hand of his power, the hand of his wrath; and who knows the power of his anger? v. 4 . Those that will not humble themselves under God's mighty hand shall be humbled and brought down by it. Note, Even Judah, where God is known, and Jerusalem, where his dwelling-place is, if they revolt from him and rebel against him, shall have his hand stretched out against them. 3. All wicked people, and all those things that are the matter of their wickedness ( v. 3 ): " I will consume the stumbling-blocks with the wicked, the idols with the idolaters, the offences with the offenders." Josiah had taken away the stumbling-blocks, and, as far as he could, had purged the land of the monuments of idolatry, hoping that there would be no more idolatry; but the wicked will do wickedly, the dog will return to his vomit, and therefore, since the sin will not otherwise be cured, the sinners must themselves be consumed, even the wicked with the stumbling-blocks of their iniquity, Ezek. xiv. 3 . Since it was not done by the sword of justice, it shall be done by the sword of war. See who the sinners are that shall be consumed. (1.) The professed idolaters, who avowed idolatry, and were wedded to it. The remnant of Baal shall be cut off, the images of Baal, and the worshippers of those images. Josiah cut off a great deal of Baal; but that which was so close as to escape the eye, or so bold as to escape the hand, of his justice, God will cut off, even all the remains of it. The Chaldeans would spare none of the images of Baal, or the worshippers of those images. The Chemarim shall be cut off; we read of them in the history of Josiah's reformation. 2 Kings xxiii. 5 , He put down the idolatrous priests: the word is the Chemarim. The word signifies black men, some think because they wore black clothes, affecting to appear grave, others because their faces were black with attending the altars, or the fires in which they burnt their children to Moloch. They seem to have been immediate attendants upon the service of Baal. They shall be cut off with the priests, the regulars with the seculars. The very name of them shall be cut off; the order shall be quite abolished, so as to be forgotten, or remembered with detestation. And, among other idolaters, the worshippers of the host of heaven upon the house-tops shall be cut off ( v. 5 ), who justified themselves in their idolatry with those that did not worship images, the work of their own hands, but offered their sacrifices and burnt their incense to the sun, moon, and stars, immediately upon the tops of their houses. But God will let them know that he is a jealous God, and will not endure any rival; and, though some have thought that the most specious and plausible idolatry, yet it will appear as great an offence to God to give divine honours to a star as to give them to a stone or a stock. Even the worshippers of the host of heaven shall be consumed as well as the worshippers of the beasts of the earth or the fiends of hell. The sin of the adulteress is not the less sinful for the gaiety of the adulterer. (2.) Those also shall be consumed that think to compound the matter between God and idols, and keep an even hand between them, that halt between God and Baal, and worship between Jehovah and Moloch, and swear by both; or, as it might better be read, swear to the Lord and to Malcham. They bind themselves by oath and covenant to the service both of God and idols. They have a good opinion of the worship of the God of Israel; it is the religion of their country, and has been long so, and therefore they will by no means quit it; but they think it will be very much improved and beautified if they join with it the worship of Moloch, for that also is much used in other countries, and travellers admire it; there is a great deal of good fancy and strong flame in it. They cannot keep always to the worship of a God whom they have no visible representation of, and therefore they must have an image; and what better than the image of Moloch—a king? They think they shall effectually atone for their sin if they swear to Moloch, and, pursuant to that oath, burn their children in sacrifice to that idol; and yet, if they do amiss in that, they hope to atone for it in worshipping the God of Israel too. Note, Those that think to divide their affections and adorations between God and idols will not only come short of acceptance with God, but will have their doom with the worst of idolaters; for what communion can there be between light and darkness, Christ and Belial, God and mammon? She whose own the child is not pleads for the dividing of it, for, if Satan have half, he will have all; but the true mother says, Divide it not, for, if God have but half, he will have none. Such waters will not be long sweet, if they come from a fountain that sends forth bitter water too; what have those to do to swear by the Lord that swear by Malcham? (3.) Those also shall be consumed that have apostatized from God, together with those that never gave up their names to him, v. 6 . I will cut off, [1.] Those that are turned back from the Lord, that were well taught, and began well, that had given up their names to him, and set out at first in the worship of him, but have flown off, and turned aside, and fallen in with idolaters, and deserted those good ways of God which they were brought up in, and despised them. Those God will be sure to reckon with who are renegadoes from his service, who began in the Spirit and ended in the flesh; they shall be treated as deserters, to whom no mercy is shown. [2.] Those that have not sought the Lord, nor ever enquired for him, never made any profession of religion, and think to excuse themselves with that, shall find that this will not excuse them; nay, this is the thing laid to their charge; they are atheistical careless people, that live without God in the world; and those that do so are certainly unworthy to live upon God in the world.